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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23312494">The Expectations of Veronica</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherry_CS/pseuds/Sherry_CS'>Sherry_CS</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ask Veronica [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:53:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23312494</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sherry_CS/pseuds/Sherry_CS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>An old schoolmate visits, making Liu Feilong realise a few things he wasn’t willing to come face to face about...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Liu Fei Long/Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Ask Veronica [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864255</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Expectations of Veronica</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For Vera.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Do you remember Liu Feilong? You used to go to school together.”</p><p>It was what her mother said that betrayed the real theme of the evening.</p><p>“No, as a matter of fact I don’t. You know it’s a long time ago that you sent me away from Hong Kong,” said Veronica Tsang without looking up from her phone. She knew her parents wouldn’t have called her back from London just for some old friend’s birthday party. So it was going to be one of <em>those</em> occasions. </p><p>“Wouldn’t you like to find out how he turned out?” Her mother turned around from the front passenger seat and asked with a visible glint in her eyes. Veronica looked up, not quite sure what to say in response. </p><p>Of course she remembered Liu Feilong. Even in Junior High he was not a sight you’d easily forget. He became the talk on everyone’s lips on the first day of school not only because he and his brother arrived in an impressive black limousine with shaded windows, but also because the school master stopped him at the gate, kindly informing him that he was probably wearing the wrong uniform — girls wore skirts. Everybody froze for a full minute. It was his brother who finally bursted out laughing, holding his stomach, clapping his little brother hard on the back, “Feilong, he took you for a <em>girl</em>! Well, whoever could blame him!” And then, depending on the teller of the tale, Feilong either cried, or kicked the school master in the shin, or both, before running away from his still-laughing older brother and a small crowd that had gathered. By the time the tale reached Veronica, she knew everything there was to know about Liu Feilong: his class number, his seat number, his height, his shoe size. </p><p>The first time she’d actually met him face to face was during a debate match. At 13 years of age Veronica was crazy about debate, and prized herself as one of the best contestants in the school. No one’d ever beat her in an argument whether during a match or outside of it. She wasn’t prepared to be driven into a corner by a scrawny little boy sporting a bob cut, no taller than her, and soft-spoken to a fault. She was dead set on winning that Best Debater title and Liu Feilong had robbed her of it. Oh how hard she had cried that night! And how easily she had fallen out of love with debate the morning after. </p><p>Soon after that her parents decided to send her to England to continue her studies, and she hadn’t seen Liu Feilong or any of her classmates since. It’d been 15 years.</p><p>“Oh yes, I’m a little curious alright.” She allowed a little smirk on her lips, betraying the fact that she actually recalled the name. Her mother turned back around with a satisfied smile. Veronica put down her phone and looked out the window. Hong Kong. It had been too long. </p><p><br/>
The event was held at one of the most prestigious hotels in town. Veronica paced down one of the grand ballrooms, grabbing a flute of champagne from a passing waiter. One of the ballrooms had a balcony looking out onto the Victoria Harbour and the view was fantastic. She had half a mind to just step out, forget about this whole boring gathering and have the night to herself, but she knew better than to vex her parents at a time like this. An art student and later a struggling singer/actress-wannabe, she was never any good at making money and had to rely heavily on her parents for financial support even to this day, much in the same way that her parents relied on a litany of other people for their business success, many of whom were present this evening and Liu, she suspected, being one of them. </p><p>The party was almost over and still her ‘date’ hadn’t shown. Veronica was starting to wonder if maybe her parents had got the wrong information and that the now-famous Liu Feilong was not going to be here tonight after all. Just then, she spotted her mother waving to her from across the hall. Standing next to her, also holding a flute of champagne, was a man she did not recognise. Right, here goes nothing. Veronica summoned her most presentable smile and walked toward the pair. </p><p>The nearer she’d got to them, the stranger she felt. Wait... Liu Feilong <em>was</em> a boy, right? Why was this man before her wearing his hair longer than she, tied in a ponytail, with long shiny strands framing his face like he was in some kind of period movie? And yet, he was definitely dressed in a man’s suit, and a well-tailored one at that. Now her father joined them, and Veronica noticed Liu stood taller than her father by a few inches. He smiled and bowed politely to her father who gestured toward the approaching Veronica, and Liu bowed a little to her as well. </p><p>Finally, they stood face to face. </p><p>“Veronica Tsang. I don’t know if you still remember me, but I cried over you for one long night first year of Junior High.” Veronica extended her hand, attacking first, in an attempt to put her opponent in embarrassment before he did her. To her surprise, Liu Feilong took her hand, shaking it firmly like a long-lost friend, and answered with a warm laugh, “yes, of course I remember. You were vehement in that debate match, had our entire team fidgeting and drenched in cold sweat. I never remembered how that match turned out, but I remembered you were brilliant.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Well, what else could she possibly say to that?</p><p>Her parents left them alone soon after that, on the pretext of ‘leaving the two of them to catch up.’</p><p>Liu Feilong offered her his arm. “Shall we?”</p><p>Veronica was genuinely puzzled. “Shall we what?”</p><p>“Get out of here, of course. I know you’re just as bored as I am.” He leaned in a little closer and confided.</p><p>She chuckled and took his arm. “Aren’t you my knight in shining armour.”</p><p>“You’d be surprised.”</p><p>And Veronica found herself genuinely looking forward to it. </p><p><br/>
He led her onto the balcony she was eyeing for herself earlier, opening the glass door for her and then taking off his jacket to put on her shoulders, shielding her flimsily dressed body from the night breeze. </p><p>She had noticed it before, but now she had the chance to closely examine him at her leisure, she was, well, stunned, by the man’s appearance. Ethereal was the word that popped into her head. She’d seen a fair amount of good-looking men in her life, having majored in art history and gone in and out of theatres, on and off stages across countries, but this person before her didn’t belong in any beauty category known to Man. Slim and tall, standing ramrod straight with a natural regality, silky long hair flowing about his face... He looked more like a lost piece of history than a real live person talking and breathing right in front of her. </p><p>Wait, talking? What was he saying?</p><p>“I’m sorry?”</p><p>“I said don’t worry, I’m used to the stares.”</p><p>“You... whoa, aren’t you the cocky one.”</p><p>“Just trying to help.” He looked out into the night and took a sip of his champagne. Veronica noticed he’d barely touched his alcohol. </p><p>She did the same. “You’re good.”</p><p>That attracted his attention. “Excuse me?”</p><p>She looked into his eyes (and what eyes!) and said, “there’s no way you could remember me. You must have done your homework. God knows I wouldn’t recognise you if you walked right up to me in the street.”</p><p>“Have I really changed that much?” He asked in a quiet voice. </p><p>Veronica took her time reflecting before taking a deep breath and answering, “I don’t know. You were not very attention-grabbing when you were little. I don’t remember you ever being without your brother, or initiating a conversation. You were awfully polite after you won that championship that I wanted. You apologised to <em>me</em>! Made me even madder. Another time...”</p><p>She was about to go on when she noticed the dark shade in his eyes, and then she remembered — her mother had specifically warned her against mentioning ANY of Liu’s family members. “Oh, I’m awfully sorry. Please do forgive me.”</p><p>“There’s nothing to forgive,” he recollected himself, turning fully around to face her, “It’s a long time ago. You obviously did your homework too.”</p><p>Awkward silence ensued. </p><p>“It’s not my idea, you know.” Veronica said, not looking at him.</p><p>“I know. You don’t look the type.” His voice was deep and soothing.</p><p>“Seriously, what’s the rush? I’m 28, I’m not dead, you know.” Veronica took a gulp of her champagne. </p><p>“I know. I bet you have had a lot of boyfriends your parents don’t know about.” </p><p>“I bet you have a lot of girlfriends NO ONE knows about.”</p><p>Feilong stilled for a moment. “No, I don’t.”</p><p>“Bullshit.”</p><p>“I really don’t.”</p><p>“Ha. Ha. Boyfriends?” She asked jokingly.</p><p>To her great surprise, there was one short pause that didn’t escape her attention. “None of those either.”</p><p>“Aren’t you the lucky one.” She took another gulp and found her glass empty. “Do me a favour. Escort me out of this coffin, will you? And please do make a show of it.”</p><p>“Your old schoolmate at your service.” He smiled, and accompanied her back inside with his hand resting on her back. </p><p><br/>
Liu Feilong didn’t drive. So Veronica hopped inside her sports car, but not before opening the passenger seat for Feilong. “Your old schoolmate at your service.” To her surprise, Liu wasn’t in the slightest offended. He tilted his head in playful gratitude, “maybe you are <em>my</em> knight in shining armour.” Veronica blushed and found herself at an uncharacteristic loss for words. </p><p>“Where do you wanna go?” She asked, once behind the wheel. </p><p>“Anywhere that takes your fancy. I’ll be paying of course.” Liu Feilong stated in a matter-of-fact fashion.</p><p>“Well, I haven’t been back in ages, but I believe I know a few good spots.” She kicked up the engine in gear. “Let’s go get a real drink.”</p><p><br/>
Apparently ‘a real drink’ meant tea for Feilong. Veronica had wanted to order JD coke at first as she generally did in London, but decided against it and opted for something sparkly instead. Jazz music flowed around them. It was a cosy place.</p><p>“Your mother said you’re into music.” Feilong asked as he drank the tea. Even in a laid-back place like this, the man was sitting bolt upright like a ballerina on stage, and he made that usually cheesy line sound genuinely interesting.</p><p>“Yes, this is sort of my spot whenever I come back.”</p><p>“I’m glad you like the place.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Nothing. What do you play?”</p><p>“Oh, my mother made me study piano from a very young age. When you’re 8 you say you want to be a musician, it’s cute, when you’re 28, it’s not.”</p><p>“I can only imagine.”</p><p>“What did you want to do when you were 8?” Veronica was suddenly curious.</p><p>“What I am doing.” Liu Feilong didn’t even pause. In fact, he didn’t even blink. “Minding the family business.”</p><p>“Is that any fun?” Veronica took a gulp from her drink and directed her eyes at the stage. There, a musician was playing the piano and singing a musical piece adapted for jazz.</p><p>“Not fun. Not fun at all. In fact, were it not for you, I would be home, working away at the computer.” Again, he spoke with that matter-of-fact tone, making it impossible for her to discern if he was joking or being serious. Although, really, he didn’t come off as the joking type. </p><p>All through their chat, she’d noticed the looks. A beautiful, proud woman of 28, Veronica was used to looks thrown in her direction, but not when they were not directed at HER. It made no sense, but she was actually feeling a little jealous toward the man sitting across from her. Now that the alcohol had blurred her vision a little, the man looked even more surreal than before. For all she knew, he could be the Devil himself walking the Earth in a disguise too extravagant for this day and age. What was even more disturbing was that some of the looks were not even of the lascivious type.</p><p>“Have you been here before?” She was practically thinking out loud. </p><p>“I may have. Why?” Feilong leaned close and answered.</p><p>“People seem to know you. But I have never seen you here.”</p><p>“Well, you have been on another continent for the major part of the last decade, correct?”</p><p>“Correct... Well. I suppose it’s no big deal. It’s a great place. Now do you wanna get out?”</p><p>“No.” Feilong leaned back and smirked. “Not before I hear you play.”</p><p>“What?” Veronica nearly choked. She wiped a trickle of alcohol away from the corner of her mouth indignantly.</p><p>“You said you played at professional venues before, didn’t you? Do I have the privilege of hearing one of the brightest stars of tomorrow’s musical world play before she rises to fame?”</p><p>“Oh, stop it... That sort of talk...”</p><p>“Doesn’t suit me, right? Just goes to show how sincere I am.”</p><p>“Well, when you put it that way...” Veronica rose and shook her hair. It wouldn’t be like her to cower from a little friendly challenge.</p><p>She sang a few of her favourite pieces, all classics from the 50s, and a personal favourite French love song that had people swaying and smiling unconsciously. She dedicated that last song to Feilong, hoping he did not speak French. Across dim lights and the small pool of faceless audience, she saw him smile. It was a sight as breathtakingly beautiful as it was, for reasons she couldn’t quite grasp, profoundly chilling. </p><p><br/>
When they walked out the bar, Feilong’s car was out waiting. His chauffeur, a strong towering man dressed in black suit, sporting a craggy crop cut and features as stoic as they were unmemorable, opened the front passenger seat for his boss. Veronica looked to where her car was parked. Another black-suited man looking almost identical with the one before her was waiting for her on the driver’s side. </p><p>“You sing beautifully, Veronica. I wouldn’t be surprised to see you with a much larger audience one of these days. In fact I can’t wait to.” Feilong spoke with that impenetrable velvetiness that Veronica had come to be so familiar with in the span of the last few hours. </p><p>“But for now you are going to say goodbye and go back to your computer?” Veronica shifted on her weight, tilting her head provocatively.</p><p>Liu Feilong took a step closer toward her, leaned in, and whispered next to her ear, “Veronica, you are a souvenir of yesterday, and you are precious to me precisely because you are no more than that. Please do not try and change that. It’d make me sadder than you think.” Then he stood back and quoted her song back to her, “Merci pour la tendresse et tant pis pour vos fesses. Isn’t that what you said?”</p><p>Veronica blushed a little, realising Feilong spoke perfect French. “It’s just a song. And it’s not what you think.”</p><p>Feilong gave her a brotherly laugh.</p><p>“There is one last place I wanna go though,” said Veronica, “forget about my car. I can come collect it tomorrow. We’ll take yours, is that okay with you? Or your chauffeur here clearly working O.T.?”</p><p>Feilong’s brow drew up. It was not often he came across a woman as demanding as she or, more to the point, as elegantly so. </p><p>“I’d be a brute to say no,” said he. </p><p><br/>
She took him to the sea. She’d always loved the sea, loved how it made Hong Kong smell so much more intimate, so much more humane, rather than just another cosmopolitan city ready to devour whoever dared to enter. The tides were high, and Feilong advised her not to come too close, but she didn’t listen. Damn it if she couldn’t step the waves in her own hometown. And she dragged Feilong in with her, taking a secret devilish delight in soiling his clearly expensive dress pants. </p><p>His hair flew all over his face under the attack of the oceanic winds, his face a globe of diaphanous light mirroring the Moon herself, and Veronica guessed something she shouldn’t have guessed. </p><p>She pulled him close and brushed a kiss across his lips. Her wavy hair, wet from the salty splashes, lingered upon his vest. Neither of them closed their eyes. When he steadied her by her bare shoulder (creamy white under the moonshine, accentuated by the straight line of eyelash laces across her décolleté) and made (somewhat hesitantly, Veronica wished she could say she imagined it) to chase that kiss, she halted him with a finger upon his Adam’s apple. </p><p>“Don’t,” she said, “don’t make an effort.”</p><p>Feilong started, bolting away as if punched. Of course, Veronica didn’t know then, but there weren’t many people who’d seen Liu Feilong flushed in the face like that and survived. “What makes you think...” His voice was noticeably hoarser, and he couldn’t finish the sentence.</p><p>Armed with an honest ignorance of the true identity of the man, Veronica walked past Feilong, tracing a gossamer line down the back of his hand with her nail. “I am only a souvenir of yesterday and I will never be more than that, remember? So don’t you worry.”</p><p>As she continued her trek up the deck, Feilong’s voice, dark and rumbling like an echo of the waves, stopped her cold in her track. “Veronica Tsang, you should be very grateful that you were my schoolmate. I haven’t killed many of those and a good thing for you, I do not intend to start.”</p><p>Veronica froze, her heels sinking into the sliding sand, wind in her hair, salt in her dress, realisation in her heart. And then, as if breaking out of a spell, she straightened up and resumed walking.</p><p>“Catch up, Little Dragon. Your bodyguard’s waiting for you.”</p><p>Feilong spun around, looking practically appalled. “No one’s called me Little Dragon since the 7th grade.”</p><p>“Exactly.”</p><p>“You are a very brave woman, Vera.” Catching up with her, he said. </p><p>“What good are childhood friends if you can’t spill dirt about them, eh?”</p><p>Feilong’s perfect eyes lit up with a rare childish glow. “Speaking of dirt… I got some on you as well.”</p><p>“Nah, you’re just bluffing.”</p><p>“Oh? ‘Dear Yantsui, I hope my sudden confession wasn’t too shocking to you…’”</p><p>“What? NO! Where did you find that…?! You didn’t read the whole thing, did you? Tell me you didn’t!”</p><p>Now they had reached the car, and Yoh had opened the door in waiting.</p><p>“I did my homework, remember?” Feilong smiled, helping Veronica into the back seat.</p><p>Veronica sighed. “Well, as long as it provided quality entertainment for you, I feel immensely relieved.”</p><p>An unreadable smile crept up Feilong’s otherworldly face, now backlit by the silver moon. “You can’t imagine how much.” </p><p>After that, he closed the door gently without waiting for a response. </p><p><br/>
Veronica didn’t know what she was expecting. Meeting up with old schoolmates was always distressing, not to mention when marital expectations and business affiliations were layered upon it. Disaster-free was all she prayed for before this night. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined her middle school friend/rival had become… an Underworld boss? Had she understood that part well?</p><p>In any case, it was not like she was going to verify. </p><p>During their silent drive home, Veronica caught the driver/bodyguard stealing glances at her from the rearview mirror. And it wasn’t the kind of glance men usually steal at women either, it felt more like he was... inspecting her? Like a potential buyer checking a certain piece of furniture to see if it would fit in perfectly with the rest of the decoration. Creepier still, there was a fleeting trace of love-sick wistfulness in the Inspector’s eyes. She shivered. </p><p>The first thing she would do when she got home was to book a flight back to London. No one, nothing, could dissuade her. </p><p><br/>
As Veronica Tsang observed Liu Feilong’s reflection in the window (possibly at the risk of her life), she thought: ah, but I did make you see a few things straight too, didn’t I? </p><p>Pun intended. </p>
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